Negro
women were sending out hurry notices to white mistresses that they would
be unable to cook the noonday meal. Dozens of negro girls flocked to the
hair-dressing establishment of Miss Mallylou Speers. All were bent on
having their wool straightened for the obsequies, and as only a few of
them could be accommodated, the little room was packed. A smell of
burning hair pervaded it. The girls sat around waiting their turn. Most
of them already had their hair down,--or, rather loose, for it stood out
in thick mats. The hair-dresser had a small oil stove on which lay
heating half a dozen iron combs. With a hot comb she teased each strand
of wool into perfect straightness and then plastered it down with a
greasy pomade. The result was a stiff effect, something like the hair of
the Japanese. It required about three hours to straighten the hair of
one negress. The price was a dollar and a half.
By half-past nine o'clock a crowd of negro men, in lodge aprons and with
spears, and negro women, with sashes of ribbon over their shoulders and
across the breasts, assembled about the Siner cabin.
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